A New Country.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 78

A New Country.

There is a certain inn down Chelsea way j thatf I sometimes drop into to meet a friend, and being theie the other evening, I witnessed an amusing episode that seems to me to be worth recounting. , The inn. in question is well known as a haunt and sort of club of a certain section of the artistically-minded who live in the neighbourhood of King's road. Her© you will meet painters, budding pianists, writers, actors, and a fair sprinkling of nondescript Bohemians, mostly in the "sere and yellow Jeaf." I sat down at a table to wait the expected arrival tif my friend, and very soon had my attention drawn to two elderly men leaning against the counter. I had seen thana oiluux before, and knew them for two

old Oxonians, both classical scholars in their day. They were conversing in Latin now, and carrying on an animated discussion in that dead tongue At my elbow a typical Britisher was seated, with a lady friend, and I could see the looks of the two were fixed uqpoh the scholars. French they had heard, and could recognise also German; but this language puzzled them completely. At last the man leaned over and touched me pn the shoulder. "I say, mister," he inquired, "what's that they are speaking?" I told him, "Latin." "Latin !" he repeated. "Well, I'm blowed ! I never heard of the country before; but d- all these foreigners, anyway!"— The Club Chatterer, in To-Day.